Also 6 funccion. [a. OE. function (F. fonction, cf. It. funzione, Sp. funcion), ad. L. functiōn-em, n. of action f. fungī (fungor) to perform.]
† 1. In etymological sense: The action of performing; discharge or performance of (something).
1597. Daniel, Civ. Wars, VI. xciii. His hand, his eye, his wits all present, wrought The function of the glorious Part he beares.
1656–31. in Blount, Glossogr.
1701. Swift, Contests Nobles & Com., Wks. 1755, II. I. 50. A representing commoner in the function of his publick calling.
1755. in Johnson. Hence in mod. Dicts.
† 2. Activity; action in general, whether physical or mental. Of a person: Bearing, gestures. Obs.
1579. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 142. A trifold kinde of life, Actiue, which is about ciuil function, and administration.
1602. Shaks., Ham., II. ii. 582. Teares in his eyes … A broken voyce, and his whole Function suiting With Formes, to his Conceit.
Ibid. (1605), Macb., I. iii. 140.
| That Function is smother’d in surmise, | |
| And nothing is, but what is not. |
8. The special kind of activity proper to anything; the mode of action by which it fulfils its purpose. Also in generalized application, esp. (Phys.) as contrasted with structure.
a. of a physical organ; in early use of animal organisms only; later of vegetable. Often preceded by some defining word, as animal, organic, vital, etc.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., III. ii. 177. Dark night, that from the eye his function takes, The eare more quicke of apprehension makes.
1664. H. More, Myst. Iniq., Apol., 500. The Earth … modified into a frame fit for the functions of life.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., viii. 284. If our Air had not been a springy elastical Body, no Animal could have exercised the very function of Respiration.
1704. F. Fuller, Med. Gymn. (1711), 22. Animal Spirits … serve to execute other Functions besides that of Motion.
1797. M. Baillie, Morb. Anat. (1807), 285. It is very difficult to assign a satisfactory reason why there should be such variety in the kidneys; but we can see that there is little disadvantage to the animal functions produced by this variety.
1808. Med. Jrnl., XIX. 386. Before we can … understand the functions of the nerves, we must understand those of the brain.
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem. (1814), 34. The same grand law which preserves the planets in their orbits, is thus essential to the functions of vegetable life.
1831. Brewster, Nat. Magic, iii. (1833), 51–2. Those frightful apparitions become nothing more than our ordinary ideas, rendered more brilliant by some accidental and temporary derangement of the vital functions.
1838. T. Thomson, Chem. Org. Bodies, 988. The functions of the leaves during the day are very different from what they are during the night.
1862. Darwin, Fertil. Orchids, ii. 65. It is impossible to doubt that these points of structure and function, which occur in no other British Orchid, are specially adapted for self-fertilisation.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 730. If the … limits mentioned … are exceeded, the functions of the plant may … simply come to rest.
1886. A. Winchell, Walks & Talks Geol. Field, 260. They [Pterosaurs] foreshadowed birds … in the flying function.
b. of the intellectual and moral powers, etc.
1604. Shaks., Oth., II. ii. 354.
| Euen as her Appetite shall play the God, | |
| With his weake Function. |
1671. Milton, Samson, 596. Nature within me seems In all her functions weary of herself.
1809–10. Coleridge, The Friend (1837), III. 192. The functions of comparison, judgment, and interpretation.
1868. Farrar, Silence & V., ii. (1875), 33. The first function of the conscience is to warn.
c. of things in general.
1541. R. Copland, Galyen’s Terapeutyke, 2 Cj. There be two fyrste dyfferences of the functions and actions of medycyne.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. iv. (1869), I. 25. These rude bars, therefore, performed at this time the function of money.
1805–17. R. Jameson, Char. Min. (ed. 3), 189. The letters are placed as if all the angles and edges had different functions.
1854. Brewster, More Worlds, v. 93. The sun has a great function to perform in controlling the movements of the whole system.
1862. H. Spencer, First Princ., I. i. § 2 (1875), 8. They assert that the sole function of the State is the protection of persons against each other, and against a foreign foe.
1872. Ruskin, Eagle’s N., § 210. The function of historical painting.
4. The kind of action proper to a person as belonging to a particular class, esp. to the holder of any office; hence, the office itself, an employment, profession, calling, trade.
1533. More, Confut. Barnes, viii. Wks. 761/1. [Barnes values his own prayers above those of Our Lady and the saints] because the sayntes be al departed hence and dead, and be no lenger of our funccion.
1564. Brief Exam. * * * * *. Garmentes make not the person knowen by name, but his common function.
1574. Ord., in D. Irving, Hist. Scot. Poetry (1861), 451. The contraveners hereof, if they be ministers, to be secludit fra the function.
1612. Brinsley, Lud. Lit., i. (1627), 1. A Discourse betweene two Schoolemasters, Concerning their function. In the end, determining a conference about the best way of teaching, and the manner of their proceeding in the same.
1662. Bk. Com. Prayer, Prayer Ember Week. To those which shall be ordained to any holy function.
1706. Estcourt, Fair Examp., IV. i. If I don’t succeed here, I’ll renounce the Honour of my Function.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 210. He would exercise no other function than that of a physician on board the ship without my leave.
1791. Burke, App. Whigs, Wks. VI. 85. With perfidy to their colleagues in function. Ibid. (1795), Regic. Peace, i. Wks. IX. 81. One of the very first acts, by which it auspicated its entrance into function.
1811. Lamb, Good Clerk, Misc. Wks. (1871), 385. The quill, which is the badge of his function, stuck behind his dexter ear.
1862. Stanley, Jew. Ch. (1877), I. xix. 369. The Jewish Prophets … included within their number functions so different as those of king and peasant.
1871. Palgrave, Lyr. Poems, 118.
| Then at thy noble function toil, | |
| Thine own, not what the ancients tried. |
1878. R. W. Dale, Lect. Preach., viii. 252. It is our function, as ministers, to satisfy the wants and to contribute to the strength and joy of the higher life of man.
† b. collect. The persons following a profession or trade; an order, class. Obs.
c. 1580. in Rye, Cromer (1870), p. lxiii. The Peere … will yealde further meanes of trade and wourke to every function.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 146. The Scribes are not a Sect, but a function.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., III. § 145. The Earl of Essex was rather Displeased with the Person of the Arch-Bishop … than Indevoted to the Function.
a. 1713. Ellwood, Autobiog. (1765), 24. I went in the Afternoon to hear the Minister of Chinner; and this was the last Time I ever went to hear any of that Function.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XXI. 177. Thy coward function ever is in fear [said to a priest].
1732. Fielding, Miser, III. iv. Never was a person of my function so used.
c. pl. Official duties.
1550. Bale, Apol., 105 b. Preferrynge vyrgynyte as … more free to all godly funccions.
1596. Bp. W. Barlow, Three Serm., ii. 71. Eyther Prince or Subiect fayling in their seuerall functions and places.
1703. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1732), 71. More … exact in their functions than the other Monks.
1774. J. Bryant, A New System; or, an Analysis of Ancient Mythology, I. 335. These animals are said to have been of infinite use to the ancient Egyptians in determining times and seasons: for, it seems, they were in some particular functions the most accurate, and punctual of any creatures upon earth.
1792. J. Barlow, Const. of 1791, 5. The quantity of prejudice with which their functions called them to contend.
1845. Ford, Handbk. Spain, I. 44. The mule performs in Spain the functions of the camel in the East, and has something in his morale (besides his physical suitableness to the country) which is congenial to the character of the Spaniard—the same self-willed obstinacy, the same resignation under burdens, the same singular capability of endurance of labour, fatigue, and privation.
1868. Helps, Realmah, iii. (1876), 43. Ministers are worked to death by their double functions—parliamentary and official.
1874. Farrar, Christ, 86. Caiaphas and Annas were dividing the functions of a priesthood which they disgraced.
5. A religious ceremony; orig. in the Roman Catholic Church. (Cf. It. funzione.)
1640. in Trans. St. Paul’s Eccles. Soc., I. 46. Wee have had neyther prayers nor any other function her thes two yers.
1670–98. Lassels, Voy. Italy, II. 33. Across set with Diamonds and Pearls which the Pope wears at his breast in great functions.
1741. Middleton, Cicero, I. VI. 416. The dedication was not performed with any of the solemn words and rites which such a function required.
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, I. 83. The Christmas functions here were showy.
1818. H. V. Elliott, Let., in Bateman, Life, iv. (1870), 70. These were the finest parts of the ‘Function’ as it is called.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, xi. The function over, one almost expects to see the sextons put brown hollands over the pews.
1868. Browning, Ring & Bk., IV. 439. After function’s done with, down we go.
1884. The Saturday Review, LVII. 7 June, 745/2. On Wednesday and Thursday of last week there were functions in two adjacent Cathedrals in the rolling woody midlands which had, formally speaking, nothing to do with each other, but which could hardly be dissociated in thought by those to whom the rapid and general development of the Cathedral system in England is a matter of great interest as much for it practical utility as for its artistic attractiveness.
b. [? after Sp. funcion: see quot. 1858.] A public ceremony; a social or festive meeting conducted with form and ceremony.
[1858. W. Stuart, Lett., in Hare, Two Noble Lives (1893), II. 431. I hope that Char.’s journal will have done justice to the Rajah of Mysore and his funcion along the road to receive her.]
1864. Kingsley, Rom. & Teut., iv. (1875), 123. Then was held a grand function. Dietrich, solemnly appointed ‘Patrician,’ had Italy ceded to him by a ‘Pragmatic’ sanction.
1878. Besant & Rice, Celia’s Arb., xxxvii. There was a Function of some kind—a Launch—a Reception—a Royal Visit—going on in the Dockyard.
1884. Manch. Exam., 11 Nov., 5/2. The American people are fond of functions.
1894. Du Maurier, Trilby, III. 333. A prandial function which did not promise to be very amusing.
6. Math. A variable quantity regarded in its relation to one or more other variables in terms of which it may be expressed, or on the value of which its own value depends.
[This use of the L. functio is due to Leibnitz and his associates. A paper in the Acta Eruditorum for 1692, pp. 169–170, signed ‘O. V. E.,’ but prob. written by Leibnitz, uses functiones in a sense hardly different from its ordinary untechnical sense, to denote the various ‘offices’ which a straight line may fulfil in relation to a curve, viz. its tangent, normal, etc. In the same journal for 1694, p. 316, Leibnitz defines functio as ‘a part of a straight line which is cut off by straight lines drawn solely by means of a fixed point, and of a point in the curve which is given together with its degree of curvature’; the examples given being the ordinate, abscissa, tangent, normal, etc. As the functiones (in Leibnitz’ sense) of a curve are variable quantities having a fixed mutual relation, this use of the word easily developed into the modern sense, which occurs in the writings of the Bernoullis early in the 18th c. A somewhat peculiar use occurs about 1713, in Leibnitz’ Hist. et Origo Calc. Diff. (Math. Schriften, ed. Gerhardt, V. 408), where he says that just as constant quantities have their ‘functions,’ viz. powers and roots, so variables have also ‘functions’ of a third kind, viz. differentials.]
1779. Chambers’ Cycl. (ed. Rees), s.v. The term function is used in algebra, for an analytical expression any way compounded of a variable quantity, and of numbers, or constant quantities.
1789. Waring, in Phil. Trans., LXXIX. 184. Let a quantity P be a function of x, or the fluent of a function of x × ẋ.
1816. Babbage, etc., trans. Lacroix’s Diff. & Int. Calc., 2. Let us take a function a little more complicated, u = ax2.
1837. Brewster, Magnet., 147. Whether the quantity and deviation at any point could be expressed by any function of the latitude and longitude of that point, when the mass of the ball and the distance of the needle from it were constant.
1885. Watson & Burbury, Math. Th. Electr. & Magn., I. 242 The functions φa and φb, may be positive or negative, and for the same metal may be positive at some temperatures and negative at others.
1892. J. Edwards, Diff. Calculus, i. § 6 (ed. 2), 2. When one quantity depends upon another or upon a system of others, so that it assumes a definite value when a system of definite values is given to the others, it is called a function of those others.
1893. A. R. Forsyth, Theory of Functions, 8. A complex quantity w is a function of another complex quantity z, when they change together in such a manner that the value of dw/dz is independent of the differential element dz. This is Riemann’s definition.
transf. 1876. L. Tollemache, in Fortn. Rev., Jan., 110. A man’s fortitude under given painful conditions is a function of two variables.
Hence Functioned ppl. a., furnished with or having a function.
1882. Athenæum, 18 Nov., 657/2. Imagine a spiritual being so placed, so surrounded, and so functioned.
